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I'm not a charter member of this board, but I'm damn close. There are people I've met here who I consider very good friends. Whether it's lunch, or get togethers before Husker games, just know I cherish the time I've spent with all of you. One of my favorites is someone I've never met in person. His name is Tom Plotts. When he started posting, it was all left leaning. Of course, my posts are right leaning. Guess what? We gave each other shit and laughed about it. It's too long ago so it can't be found, but Norm joked about how Husker basketball could bring left and right together. He was right. I sure miss Norm's posts.... I want to thank everyone who contributed to tcp's cause last year. It truly touched his heart! I've pm'd Tom a couple times in the last few months. He always responds immediately. No reply. I assumed the worst, so, I reached out to the man I knew who could get an answer, HB, and he came through with an impeccable source. Tom Plotts passed away on 5-28-24. For the last several years, Tom and I talked on a regular basis. He was so proud of the work he was doing for veterans in front of the Oklahoma legislature. When he got the chance to go to DC, which you all were part of, he was so happy. I wish we could have won a game in the tourney last year. Oh well. Husker basketball and music brought Tom and me together. Music is a bond... That's why I do the video thing. RIP, mon frere!

That was so awesome. Go Big Red!

What’s going on everybody. Figured I’d fire up an account on the board to be amongst the basketball folks in the dog days of summer. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m entering my third full season covering Nebraska Basketball for Huskers Illustrated magazine. I also host a basketball podcast, The Stretch Big with Jacob Bigelow. You may have also heard me randomly popping in on 1620 over the last year or so on either the morning or midday shows. In my college years I was a student manager for the basketball program at Nebraska under Coach Miles. Planning to be around this summer and fall leading into the new season. If anybody’s got some off-season questions, would be happy to answer them to the best of my ability. Happy to be here.

I just want to shout-out Juwan Gary. He plays with an edge and consistently makes winning plays. When UCLA was trying to come back and steal it at the end, it was Gary who slammed the door shut. It was also Gary who knocked down a couple 3s, forcing UCLA to guard him, which helped open up the floor for Brice to get to the rim (and get fouled). I do tire of some fans complaining about him taking 3s. His shot has obviously improved, and is to the point where he should be taking 3-5 open/rhythm 3s per game. The threat of him shooting opens things up for everyone. He just shouldn't try to make a living out there, and he hasn't. Gary is a program-changer, and I don't think we will understand just how valuable he is to this program until he's gone. I'd love to see the record of games with Gary in the lineup versus the same number of games without him.

Still the best Husker basketball board anywhere, by far. This is especially evident on days like today. When other boards are in meltdown, with mainly snark posts and trolling, this one has civil basketball discussions. Disagreements are mainly respectful. I learn from the knowledgeable hoops fans on here virtually every time I log on. The hoops knowledge on here is high level. That's not remotely the case on other boards.

#GBR

One thing that we need to remind ourselves is that part of coaching is just that, actually coaching basketball skills. We seem to get lost in thinking that Player A did this at his last school so that is exactly what he is and he can't be a different or better player for Nebraska and for Fred Hoiberg. Brice Williams was a 6th man. At Charlotte. He averaged 13.8 / 5.3 / 1.2 playing against AAC competition. He averaged 13.4 / 5.5 / 2.5 at Nebraska starting every game and playing in the Big Ten. Essentially you could say a guy whose role was Charlotte's 6th man in 2022-23 was arguably Nebraska's best and most important player in 2023-24 on the the best team we've had in a longggg time. He had more assists this season than he did in 3 years at Charlotte. No one last year would have been saying this guy would be doing all that. Rienk Mast shot 122 treys for us last year when his previous season totals were 92, 95, 68. Mast had 95 assists when his previous season totals were 37, 44, 70. He was more of an outside threat and distributor at Nebraska than he ever was at Bradley. Keisei Tominaga was not really a very good player for the first 1.5 years of his Nebraska career. Until Fred unlocked him and then he transformed his game into being a scorer both inside and out and getting to the free throw line. If you remember to 2021-22, he was not that whatsoever. Fred Hoiberg is our basketball coach. The Big Ten Coach of the Year and National Coach of the Year. He is by all accounts an offensive genius. Our system and sets immediately put our players in a better situation than they have probably ever been in in their lives. The difference between last year and previous years is he stopped just taking the highest rated player they could get or biggest name they could get and instead actually found skillsets that would complement each other and make for a tough, good team. I will give him the benefit of the doubt that the players he is bringing in is because he sees something in them that he can bring out.

Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg is the recipient of the 2023-24 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year award. The award is presented annually to the top head coach in division I college basketball. Hoiberg led the Cornhuskers to their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2014. Nebraska finished with 23 victories - the program’s most since 1991. Nebraska was top-40 nationally in adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency, holding opponents to a top-20 defensive field goal percentage. The Cornhuskers finished third in the Big 10, posting a winning record for only the third time since they joined the league for the 2011-12 season. Hoiberg is the second Husker men’s basketball coach to earn the honor, as Tim Miles was the 2014 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year. The Jim Phelan Award is named in honor of a legendary bow-tied coach who spent his entire head coaching career at Mount Saint Mary’s University. Phelan graduated from La Salle University in 1951 and played one season in the NBA with the Philadelphia Warriors. After a brief professional career, Phelan went to Mount St. Mary’s as an assistant in 1953. One year later he began his historical career as a head coach. He led the Mountaineers to 16 Division II NCAA tournaments. Five times they advanced to the Final Four and he led them to the DII National Championship in 1962. When he retired in 2003, after coaching for 49 years, he had amassed 830 wins (overall record of 830-524) in all divisions. In those 49 years, 19 of his teams amassed 20 or more wins in a season. In 2008 he was inducted into National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. The recipient of the annual award is determined by a 10-member voting committee, which consists of current and former head coaches, as well as two senior staff members of collegeinsider.com. Here is Fred finding out about the award from his family View full article

Since I gave up my season tickets, Nebraska is 28-1 at home. You're welcome.

People said we need to be more athletic like A&M. Well we just got a little closer.

I’m going to have to disagree. First, they represent a quad 1 win opportunity. So that’s not like any other game on the schedule. Second, this game is Creighton’s red circle on the calendar game, and has been since the mid 90’s. And nebraska trying to downplay the rivalry and say it’s just another game is one reason why we get our butts kicked often. I guarantee you that Sam Griesel didn’t view it as no different than any other. And third, I’ve lived in Omaha my entire life as a diehard Husker hoops fan. I loathe the Jays. I loathe the sweater-vest and 3/4 zip wearing, snobby cu fans who make snide remarks the next day in the office. I’ve been putting up with it for over two decades as an adult. I hate that they developed into a relevant and nationally ranked program while their fans also cheer for 9 win seasons and bowl game appearances. I dislike that they built their program with a mixture of clean cut Korvers, Kalkbrenner, Dane Watts, and Grant Gibbs types countered by the P’Allen’s, Cavel Witters, Rodney Buford’s, and Mo’ Watson ilk. I loathe CU. I dislike Jayskers. I find them beyond annoying. I respect coach Mac as a coach but will never ever be a part of his plantation. Sorry to vent. I’m ready for Friday now. GBR!!!!

New to the chat and just wanted to say thanks for having me. Wanted to get some insight on this year team that I’m not too familiar with so I found this. As always, #GBR ~Steve Harley

My man, we used a scholarship on Blaise Keita and Ramel Lloyd and we still had guys transfer out because they were unhappy with lack of playing time. Mast is now our 5th guy on scholarship in 2025-26. In terms of scholarship usage, this is a no-brainer.

Hey guys, I will come up with another contest this season, but I'm not sure what or when. I wasn't going to say anything, but Mrs. Cip told me she posted this on her Facebook page, so I guess that gives me permission to share. I didn't watch any of the Washington game. Had to get up at 4 am Thursday to take her to Bryan West for a double mastectomy. They took 4 lymph nodes also, finding cancer in the first two. We have to wait a couple weeks for results on the other two. Why am I sharing this? To give people hope. We will win this battle. Just like we will win the MDS battle with Seth. Typically, life expectancy with his battle is 7 years from diagnosis. We just started year 15. When I said we will win this battle, it's not us winning, it is that God wins! So far, He is undefeated. That's why I'm so confident. We are all looking forward to Sunday. Church, a Huskers victory and the Super Bowl! Haven't decided what I'm cooking yet.

Fox was gushing over the UCLA defense before the game. Nebraska: Hold my beer

Kalkbrenner taking one shot might be the craziest stat of all time.

Sam with the dagger!

Hearing good news may be coming on this front. Hope it's true, stay tuned.

Named to both the coaches and media 1st team View full article

Nebrasketball Transfer Wishlist: PG, SG, SF, PF, C Maybe 2x in each position for some depth.

This was a bad roster. Unathletic and can't shoot. Anything else is over analysis. Not about heart or effort. It's about talent. 17th best roster in the league. Had a chance to overachieve, by winning a few of the close games. Ultimately settled about where we should. Good floor coaching and effort had us in the running to get a bid, but we digressed to about how many bullets we had in the gun. A first team all Big 10 guy and total dude, and a guy who was a dude most of the time despite playing hurt, and then problems. Not enough to survive in this league. The portal needs to be much better this year than last, or we're gonna be at the bottom again. Hopeful we do better there this time around.

The 23 minutes, 10 points, and 7 rebounds were all season highs for Braxton Meah

My friends, that was a blast! The place was half full, with red behind our bench, and then sprinkled throughout. Not sure how it sounded over TV, but I thought Big Red showed up. The facility was nice; but certainly small. I commented to someone near me, in red, that it was more of a small college feel. Their fans were, uhhh, rather mild. I did see Rich King. Man, I was worried for a bit. It seemed the losing string MOJO was coming back; but boy, a great second half turn around. Will climb on a plane and return home tomorrow; but what a great trip with two quality wins. The players who played...played well.

Meet Roxanne the newest Nebraska Basketball Mascot and hopefully good luck dog. There's precedent

Happy to announce that despite various openings and opportunities out there that Husker Hoops Central will remain at Nebraska for its 20th season. Just got this puppy today.

All, Once again I am deciding to fall on the sword for Husker basketball. A couple years ago I noticed that if I picked a husker loss in the HHCC Competition, they won. If I tried to actually nail the score and thought we'd win, they'd lose. Due to my clear control and impact over the program, I had to make the choice to continue to pick them to lose at the cost of my HHCC ranking. I assume many remember. This lead to the nice run towards the end of the '23 season and then obviously the tourney birth in '24. For those of you who were paying attention, I actually started the year HOT in HHCC, and was still ranked pretty high through some of our losing streak. Well, we are in a dire situation, once again. I have noticed that if I don't participate in the HHCC Competition, and I continue making negative and dark remarks, suggesting Fred get fired, we play better. The more I text my buddies that "I'm out on this staff," the better we play. Therefore I have choose, once again, to tank my HHCC season, and include my reputation on the board, for the good of the team. From here until the end of the season you will see nothing but negativity from me regarding the team and the staff. I've even considered writing up a "Fire Fred" email to AD Dannen. It is my cross to bare, for the sake of the program. But I do it with great purpose and profound care for the program. So - as you guys continue to watch this loser, dead-beat program, with it's JV staff - I hope you know the sacrifice I am making. Your thanks and appreciation are assumed, no need to shower me with praise. Thank you all. And you're welcome.

That is the most proud of the team I’ve been all year. (Maybe Oregon or Indiana or UCLA) Those guys fought so hard, played with some much mojo, did everything they had gotten crap for through so much of the year. Certainly we can talk about the roster and the deficiencies we have, but given the guys that we have, they stepped up and played awesome tonight. Brutal the way everything ended.

We were 4 or 5 rows behind Delano and McGowans. Also had a chance to visit with Fred's wife, brother and sister-in-law. What good people.

Big win. Gives us a chance to get another road win Wednesday to get back even for the two home losses. That would be on pace for 10-10 in the conference which gets us in the tourney for sure. Would never have thought we could win at Oregon going 4-23 from 3 - particularly missing a number of good looks. Morgan and Gary both finished really well around the rim which helped make up for the poor outside shooting. Berke did not have a big stat game but he battled hard and other than not shooting great did not make mistakes. Meah also gave us some good minutes in the 1st half when we needed them. I have been one down on Rollie at times - but he was money tonight with some big shots when we really needed them. If he keeps contributing on offense we might finish pretty strong. All that said: A. Juwan Gary may well be one of my top 10 favorite huskers (and my Husker fandom goes back to the late 1960's.) He really plays with effort and is a great leader. Not the most skilled player - but he gets the most out of his ability and comes up big at big times. His arrival (along with Emmanuel Bandoumel) a couple years ago really flipped the culture of this program when it was in a very bad place. B. Brice Williams deserves to be 1st team all-conference. I know there are some very talented players in this conference - but I don't think there is anyone more important to their team and given our limited offensive threats on this team he just has to battle extra hard every game. I hope he gets some recognition for that at the end of the year.

You rang?

Bluejay Underground is in meltdown mode...there season is officially over. An example: Kalk has 1 shot...a 3. Hoiberg is putting a clinic on Mac tonight

Late Monday morning I plan to let you know if I think Fidler is under or over rated

I know a lot of our fanbase thinks the sky is falling and that Fred somehow hasn't earned his extension (yes, there are people saying this). But on April 1, 2023, our Nebraska Basketball scholarship roster for 2023-24 looked like this: Keisei Tominaga (did not announce his return until June 1) Blaise Keita Juwan Gary C.J. Wilcher Jamarques Lawrence Ramel Lloyd Wilhelm Breidenbach (would enter portal in May) Quaran McPherson (would enter portal in late April) Eli Rice Rienk Mast committed April 12 Brice Williams committed April 12 Josiah Allick committed May 2 Matar Diop committed July 23 Deep breaths everyone, it will be OK. We are in a much better spot than we were at this time last year.

I’m going to give the guy who gets criticized a lot - a lot of credit for his play down the stretch, and that’s Brax. You can’t teach 7’1” with a wingspan like that. He had a few plays where altered shots and his break up of that lob was absolutely huge. And his FT shooting was good too. I know it’s matchup based, but he helped us win today. And a Q1 win is a Q1 win. And another road win in conference. Huge.

A quick update: we were under the impression when the first two lymph nodes tested positive, they then removed two more. We were wrong. They actually removed 20 additional lymph nodes. Got the results back this morning. All 20 came back negative! Thank you all for your prayers! Got a good feeling about tonight's game....

From this photo one might be led to believe it was OSU that was giving it to Brice Williams. But he in fact was the one giving it to them.

I hope they lose every game. If we're worth a damn we don't need Creighton to enhance our national presence.

They have 4 guys who can slot in at the 4 and right now all of them are Lat Mayen

Well that’s was awesome. I picked NU to win but not by that much. It was actually pretty dominant at times. Juwan Gary is our Alpha. Meah was worth the get even if it was just to counter Kalk. He will do just fine in the big ten. That was the best game we have seen from Connor. Really gave us another threat beside Brice. Loved how we attacked Kalk - even Uhlis drove in on him. GBR! I will not be a quiet person Monday at the office

That's likely a Quad 1A win fellas. Those are damn hard to come by. GBR...what a win. Dominated them from beginning to end. Defense was about as good as I have ever seen for a full 40 minutes.

Just great to be back in my seats and watching my Huskers play basketball.

Hopefully, but these kinds of decisions are made every day at portal time. How far to go on NIL with each player/agent, figuring out what's real, drawing a line knowing that's effectively letting a guy go. I'm probably stating the obvious, but this is so much about money now, rather than a better fit at a new program, etc. And on the program end, there comes a point where the price is higher than the player is good, and you have to keep some dry powder. The good news is in the play for pay era, our new AD is totally committed to that, and will overtly support 1890 until the system changes and allows direct institutional participation or changes to an employee model. Fred is very pleased with Dannen so far. Fred has almost double what he had to work with on the pay players budget from a year ago. We're all in on the current system. We're really trying to get a visit from Payne, but the NIL demands are very, very high. We're getting a visit from Essigian, assuming he doesn't commit to Indiana on his visit there. Kyle supposed to come next weekend but concerned about Wake giving him a huge number, like they did Sallis.

Berke will be fine. I have a pretty good track record on injuries. Remember Gary out for the rest of the year? I said two games max. Who was right? I decree and declare Berke plays against Maryland this Thursday. GBR!

I have to wonder who we have lined up to come here for JL to leave

Yikes. Why do you say the Houston players are thugs in sneakers? Shead is by all accounts one of the good guys in college basketball. Great player too. They have a tough, blue collar culture in place there. Duke typically has at least a few players who behave like entitled, whiny little brats on the court.